I raise this question here because I am seeking some advice. I am sure that I am not the ist to experience this shift.
What I want to know is, am I going to be severely limited in developing hunting proficiency if I continue to learn how to shoot a trad bow as a right hander even though my dominant eye has recently changed to the left side. Is the compensation too much to deal with intinctively, or should I just switch to lefty now and learn/teach myself to shoot from a side where my memory and muscles are not as proficient nor as accustomed to?
:confused: I have been learning to shoot a trad bow for only four months now, and want to learn instinctively even though my best results in terms of accuracy occur when gap shooting, or aiming the arrow by closing my left/good eye and sighting down the arrow with my right eye.
Has anybody passed this way recently and how can it best be done?
I have always shot right handed. I used to be right eye dominate. An eye injury a few years ago made me switch to left eye dominate over night. I compensated right away and shoot as well as I ever did. In fact I never noticed any difference, even right away. The conclusion I came to was that even though I was right eye dominate, I believe I have always used my left eye as the dominate one. If you think about it a right handed shooter's right eye's vision is obstructed by the bow sight, fletching, string and bridge of nose where as the left eye has a wide open picture to the target.
This being said I am a purely an instinctive shooter and I believe that is why I didn't see a change in shooting. If you are using the arrow as a reference in any way, you may want to consider switching. I'd stay with right hand for a while though to see if it makes a difference before making a decision.
Chad
I am also a right handed shooter who is left eye dominant(always have been). I dont know if I subconsiously compensate or not but dont seem to have any drama shooting. I shoot a split vision style.
Always been right handed left eye dominant. If you shoot instinctive, it does not matter.
Danny
I'm also one of those mixed up shooters and agree w/ the above.Shooting problems are more related to something else.
Chad, that's interesting about the right eye being obstructed anyway by the string and feathers. My experience since I switched to instinctive has been to be able to follow the arrow flight better. My patterns have not improved, but I know where the arrow is going more, and enjoy the flight.
Maybe I am just too impatient for improvements and need to hang in there from the right side.
This feed back is encouraging me.
Doesn't matter if you shoot "instinctive," that is, if you do not aim down the shaft.